For some reason, lots of people hate wind farms—I think they're rather pretty!—but NIMBY is a powerful, powerful force. So why not stick 'em far in the breezy sea? Trans-Elect wants to do just that, with Google cash.

The Atlantic Wind Connection is a proposed network of hundreds of at-sea wind farms stretching from New Jersey to Virginia, all linked together, generating as much juice as ten filthy coal plants. Wiring that energy from sea to shore won't be easy, but Google's already putting up dough, along with two other backers.

Trans-Elect says it'll start building the first part of the $5 billion network—from Delaware to Atlantic City—in 2013, with the rest following in 2016. It's never wise to expect anything from those estimates, as a project of this scope is just begging for delays, but the potential is enormous—incentivizing wind power developers to hook their turbines into Trans-Elect's pipe could go a long way to turning the way we charge up in the right direction. [PopSci]